Life and politics from the Sunshine State's best city

Ritch Workman - page 6

State Rep. Ritch Workman, Tallahassee’s newest Uber driver-partner, is getting rave reviews from his legislative colleagues. Workman, whose other part-time job is chairman of the House Rules Committee, is also director of business development at Keiser University. The Melbourne Republican hopes to use his passion for Uber to gain insight on an issue sure to face legislative battles in the 2016 session. Impressed by first-hand participation, several legislators praised Workman as both an ambitious Floridian and hardworking businessperson. Married with six children,…

Last session, “transportation network services” like Uber and Lyft were one of myriad issues where the House and Senate diverged — the House position was enthusiastically pro-Uber, while the Senate was more reticent. But state Rep. Ritch Workman has taken his support for ridesharing to a whole new level. FloridaPolitics.com has learned — and a rep for Uber has confirmed — that the House Rules Committee Chairman has taken up a side job as a “driver partner” for the ride-hailing service. In the photo below,…

As ever in the term limits era, the makeup of the Republican House majority is set to shift in terms of personnel, if not necessarily in degree of dominance. As the very House-inflected state Rep. Matt Gaetz seeks to take over his father state Sen. Don Gaetz‘s spot in the Legislature’s upper chamber, a Walton County commissioner has filed to replace him in his deeply conservative District 4 seat. Commissioner Wayne Harris filed paperwork to run on June 10, according to the Florida Division of Elections.…

Lawmakers left the statehouse last week amid a stream of insults and without a budget in place for the fiscal year that begins in July. Most observers seemed to think time away from Tallahassee would lower the temperature in the room and allow budget work to begin but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Senate Appropriations Chair Tom Lee is taking exception to comments House Rules Chair Ritch Workman made in the media about an alimony reform bill left dead on the special order calendar…

During the recently-concluded legislative session, Senate President Andy Gardiner constantly warned about the threat to the state’s hospitals if they were to lose more than $1 billion that now comes from the federal government. There’s a good reason Gardiner understands hospitals: he works for one. Gardiner’s employment is legal, but it highlights a common practice in the Florida Legislature. Many legislators have places where their professional lives and legislative work overlap. The Florida Legislature is a “part-time” job that pays…

Susan Glickman’s apparent absent-mindedness could come with a steep price tag: a trip before the state ethics committee. Last month, SaintPetersBlog called out Glickman, an “unofficial” lobbyist – at least at the time — on her “hypocritical” transparency problem. The Indian Rock Beach resident has served as Director of the Southern Alliance Clean Energy Fund since 2013. In March, Glickman appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee, discussing the importance of registering lobbyists. A search on floridalobbyist.gov showed she herself had not registered,…

South Florida voters may get a chance to tell legislators whether they want Las-Vegas styled casinos. A Florida House panel on Thursday voted in favor of a stripped-down gambling bill. Legislators removed a provision to allow two casinos in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, but agreed to let county commissioners hold referendums on whether casinos should be allowed. Rep. Ritch Workman said he wants to know if people in “downtown Miami” support a casino. Even if voters say yes, the Legislature…